PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (S ) 



Gerald R. Taylor, Ronald T. Wrenn, Walter L. 

 Ellis, Richard C. Simmonds, A. M. Heimpel, R. A. 

 Long, B. G. Foster, D. 0. Lovett, J. Spizizen, J. 

 E. Isherwood, Horst Buecker, G. Horneck, H. 

 Wollenhaupt, P. A. Volz, Y. C. Hsu, D. E. Jerger, 

 J. L. Hiser, J. M. Veselenak, Eugene V. Benton, M. 

 B. Parson, J. Vernon Bailey, Robert A. English, 

 Bennie C. toooley, and Charles E. Chassay 



EXPERIMENT TITLE/NUMBER : Microbial Response to Space Environment 

 PROGRAM/MISSION : Apollo 1b 



CLASSIFICATION : Microorganism - 



( Bacillus thuringiensis , Aeromonas 

 proteolytica . Bacillus subtillis . strains HA 

 101 (59), HA 101 (59)F, and 16b, Escherichia 

 coli T-7 phage , Chaetomium globosum . 

 Trichophyton terrestre . Rhodotorula rubra . 

 Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) 



DISCIPLINE(S) : Radiobiology, Genetics, Cell biology 



OBJECTIVES : To evaluate the effect of a particular space flight on the 

 survival rate of different microbial species. 



PROTOCOL : Each microbial sample containing 100 to 1 million live cells, was 

 housed in chambers or cuvettes for flight and ground controls. Microbes could 

 be suspended in 50yl of fluid or dried on a carrier, exposed to vacuum of 

 space or retained at 1 atm. An optical filtering system controlled the total 

 radiant 2 energy reaching exposedgtest systems from a minimum of 4 x 10 

 ergs/cm to a maximum of 8 x 10 ergs/cm . 



EQUIPMENT : Microbial ecology evaluation device (MEED) containing 798 

 cuvettes, 140 neutral density filters, 28 bandpass filters, 8 recording 

 thermometers, one high-energy multicharged particle dosimeter, 64 potassium 

 ferrioxalate actinometry cuvettes, 44 photographic film cuvettes, and 18 

 thermoluminescent dosimeter cuvettes. 



RESULTS : Bacillus thuringiensis showed no change in survival rate after 

 exposure to solar ultraviolet irradiation at 254, 280, 300 nm. Significant 

 decrease in survival rate after exposure to full sunlight was observed but is 

 not considered anomalous behavior. 



Aeromonas proteolytica cells were evaluated for survival and quantitatively 



tested for alterations in toxin production. Postflight, there was no 



significant difference between the survival rates of inflight and ground 

 controls . 



172 



